The Mekong Memo: Cambodia

Cambodia 20260727

August Whitcraft — Mon, 27 Jul 2026 02:34:26 GMT

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Phnom Penh Gets 10% US Tariff, Beating Rivals

Cambodia got a 10% Section 301 tariff in the USTR's final ruling, a notable two and a half points lower than the rate that was given to Vietnam, Thailand, Singapore, and the Philippines. The June proposal had put Cambodia in the higher tier, but three ministries worked to improve enforcement against forced-labor imports before the comment deadline, and the final list moved Cambodia, Indonesia, and Malaysia down to 10%. Deputy Prime Minister Sun Chanthol seemed delighted. He said he expects the pending Excess Capacity component to come in at 9% or less, which would keep the combined rate around 19% and within the trade agreement Phnom Penh signed with Washington last year.

Read more: The Star (tariff ruling), Kiripost (enforcement push), Cambodianess (Chanthol comments), Khmer Times (trade deal), Khmer Times (regional comparison)

Hun Manet and Hun Sen Go Shopping for Dollars

Prime Minister Hun Manet and Senate President Hun Sen spent the week hosting peeps with checkbooks - first a South Korean Chamber of Commerce delegation, then a US-ASEAN Business Council group of more than a dozen American companies led by Ambassador Brian McFeeters. The pitch is being made as exports to Thailand dropped to $357 million in the first half from $448 million a year earlier, and imports were reduced from $1.7 billion to about $1 billion as the border closure keeps grinding. Trade with South Korea, by contrast, was about $600 million last year, up almost 37 percent. Those numbers give Phnom Penh a talking point as it looks past its shrunken neighbor for capital for healthcare, energy, and the digital economy.

Read more: Cambodia Daily (investment targets), US Embassy (delegation companies), Khmer Times (mine contamination), CamboJA (displacement toll)

Tourist Arrivals Fall Almost 48% in First Half

International arrivals fell almost 48 percent to 1.75 million in the first half, according to the Ministry of Tourism. PATA Cambodia chapter chairman Thourn Sinan claimed the weak numbers were thanks to a wobbly global economy and neighbors outspending Phnom Penh on flights, visa exemptions, and packages. Researcher Chedy Tech thinks it’s down to the conflict in the Middle East and global inflation, which he says is pinching the wallets of those who might otherwise visit. The months-long Thai border closure, once a major overland funnel into Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, was unmentioned by both experts.

Read more: Khmer Times

FBI's Patel Comes to Collect on the Scam Tally

Kash Patel met with Hun Manet at the Peace Palace after a stop in Bangkok to hold court at a summit with nearly 20 countries on scam centers, and Phnom Penh released its first full-year scorecard. Authorities say 2,773 suspects were sent to court in 268 cases, more than 600 locations were raided, and 21,102 foreigners were deported. Nineteen casino licenses were withdrawn and 30 more were suspended after a review of 195. Hun Manet told Bloomberg that he has removed a three-star general, a two-star general, and a one-star general because of scam links, as well as provincial governors and police commissioners. Phnom Penh will play host to an international conference in September, an FBI delegation is confirmed. The UN says that regional losses last year were up to $114 billion, about triple its estimate from two years earlier.

Read more: The Star (detention demographics), The Star (UNODC loss range), Khmer Times (center closures), CamboJA (bitcoin seizure)

LNG Exporters Circle First Gas Plant

Suppliers from the US, Canada, Australia, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia are getting in line ahead of the tender to fuel the 900MW Botum Sakor plant, according to Mines and Energy Minister Keo Rottanak. Price and supply stability will decide the winner. The first 450MW phase is expected online by the end of this year, and the second phase should roll out next year. The Japan-Korea LNG marker has topped $21 per million BTU as renewed Persian Gulf fighting and Qatar's force majeure extension at Ras Laffan tighten supply. Rottanak says renewables power almost two-thirds of the grid, and LNG picks up slack as part of the rest while the government works toward 70 percent “clean power” by 2030. Fuel tax and duty cuts that have been introduced to protect domestic users from price shocks are costing the treasury up to $60 million a month.

Read more: Cambodianess (construction timing), Energy Connects (fuel tax cuts), Oilprice (energy mix)

Photo by Siborey Sean on Unsplash

Chinese Megaprojects Clear Local Law, Flunks Global Standards

A study presented at an NGO Forum on Cambodia workshop found that the Lower Sesan 2 dam, Dara Sakor SEZ, and Funan Techo Canal all cleared the minimum local legal bar but fell short of IFC, UN, and OECD standards. Chinese money made up as much as 54 percent of investment capital last year. Researcher Sam Chanthy reported on persistent woes including limited public consultation, weak grievance (resolution) systems, and inadequate livelihood restoration for displaced residents. Deforestation and altered river hydrology were also raised as chronic problems, not one-off mistakes.

Soap Complaint Triggers Registration Pilot

A soap maker's registration ordeal has pushed Hun Manet to order a six-day licensing pilot for the industry. The pilot is part of an SME overhaul and comes as consumers continue to boycott Thai products. The Cambodia Chamber of Commerce says paperwork was never the real problem. Vice president Lim Heng wants better enforcement of import duties on finished goods and tax relief to steady raw-material supply for local manufacturers. Deputy PM and Finance Minister Aun Pornmoniroth have been tasked with chairing an emergency task force.

Kem Sokha's Travel Ban Lifted

A royal decree lifted Kem Sokha's five-year overseas travel ban three months after the Phnom Penh Appeal Court handed it down. The former opposition leader's first trip out of the capital will not be to a rally, instead he is heading to Banteay Meanchey to pass out 300 food packages for displaced families, then on to Oddar Meanchey to meet frontline troops on the Thai border. His lifetime ban on political activity, related to the Supreme Court's dissolution of his Cambodia National Rescue Party, will remain in place. A US trip to visit his daughters and get medical treatment is planned next.

Read more: The Star (royal decree), Khmer Times (pardon)

EU Building Codes Adopted

Cambodia has adopted 10 Eurocodes (the EU's structural design standards) after sustained lobbying by EuroCham's Real Estate and Construction Committee. Vice-chair Ross Wheble, who is the head of Knight Frank Cambodia, said the recognized code should lift construction quality, planning transparency, and foreign investor confidence. Wheble said the adoption is "the single biggest upgrade to the regulatory framework in a decade."

Cambodia 20260720

August Whitcraft — Mon, 20 Jul 2026 05:12:30 GMT

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Hun Manet Shops China for an AI Economy

Hun Manet spent three days in Beijing and Shanghai chasing an AI future to replace the garment factories and tour buses that have been carrying the economy for years. He had the opportunity to meet with Xi Jinping in Shanghai, Premier Li Qiang in Beijing, and managed to get Cambodia signed on as one of 29 founding members of the new World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization, which will be based in Shanghai. During the trip, Haier Group said it would build a tablet assembly plant, and Beijing Star AI said it was looking for local partners, two moves that will add to $4.7 billion in Chinese-backed project approvals recorded in the first half 2026. China holds more than a third of Cambodia’s external debt. Minister Delegate Jean-Francois Tain was keen to reassure everyone that the "ironclad friendship" is not a military alliance and that protecting sovereignty "remains Cambodia's own duty."

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (WAICO), The Star (growth forecast), CamboJA News (investment), Xinhua (crime pledge), China Daily (mechanism)

Taiwan Pulls Visa Access After One-China Backing

Taiwan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Cambodia will lose access to the Guanhong Project and Travel Authorization Certificate scheme from August 1, shuttering two paths that Phnom Penh has used since 2018 for tour-group and conditional visa-free entry. The announcement came during Hun Manet's China trip, where he told Xi Jinping that Hong Kong, Taiwan, Xinjiang and Xizang are "purely China's internal affairs" and thanked Beijing for its "selfless" support. Taiwan said Cambodia had failed to reciprocate Taiwan's goodwill, parroted Beijing on sovereignty, and appeared to back China's possible use of force toward unification. It also raised concern about Cambodia's connection to cross-border fraud. Thailand, Brunei and the Philippines, in contrast, were given a one-year extension through July 31, 2027, while India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Myanmar and Laos get to keep their access through December 31. Any reversion to the status quo, MOFA said, will depend on a change in Phnom Penh's Taiwan policy.

Read more: Taipei Times (visa review), Khmer Times (MOFA statement), Cambodianess (China trip)

Air Cambodia Orders 20 COMAC Jets

Twenty COMAC C909 regional jets are headed to Air Cambodia under a deal agreed to in Shanghai, the first bulk order for the Chinese-built aircraft from any foreign flag carrier. Deliveries should begin this year. PM Hun Manet met COMAC's Shen Bo and Air Cambodia CEO David Zhan in advance of the ceremony. The airline currently flies three ATR 72s and three A320s, and it has orders for 10 Boeing 737 MAX 8s with an options on 10 more. China supplies almost a third of Air Cambodia's seat capacity, and the carrier's ownership tilts the same way. The government owns 30%, Vietnam Airlines has 14%, and the rest is with China's Henan Airport Investment Group and Hong Kong's 7Trip International. A separate MOU will give COMAC a role in training local maintenance crews and pilots for the new fleet.

Read more: The Star (C909 specs), Khmer Times (MOU), Aviacionline (fleet), Aviation Week (ownership)

Anderson Tells Senate Scams Are Job One in Phnom Penh

Christopher Anderson, nominated in June to fill a US ambassadorship that was vacant for more than two years, told his Senate that taking down scam networks that have "stolen tens of billions of dollars from American citizens and exploited hundreds of thousands in forced criminality" will be his top priority. Anderson, who told the panel he has spent his career "back against the wall, trying not to be noticed," inherits a crackdown that has already claimed its biggest scalp, the January extradition of Chen Zhi (erstwhile adviser to Hun Sen) to China. But much of the industry seems to be surviving. Of the more than 16,000 people deported in the first half of 2026, and the 240,000 who left "voluntarily," no official count exists of how many were trafficking victims rather than criminals. The National Police did not respond to requests for comment.

Read more: The Economist (Chen Zhi), Khmer Times (Senate hearing), CamboJA News (Amnesty findings)

Courts Jail Three Over Border Coverage

The Supreme Court in June upheld 14-year treason sentences for TSP 68 TV's Pheap Pheara and Battambang Post TV's Phon Sopheap, who were convicted because of selfies with Cambodian troops after last July's border fight. One image allegedly showed landmines that Thai media later connected to claims of newly laid mines. The Oddar Meanchey Provincial Court added a third case, sentencing Lout Sophal to two years for “demoralizing the army” because of his February 7 report on frontline troops running short of water. More than 30 journalists, activists and opposition figures were arrested over border-related social media posts between July 2025 and February 2026.

Read more: CamboJA News (pardon letter), CamboJA News (Sophal sentencing)

Photo by Siborey Sean on Unsplash

Tourism Police Chief Probed Over $505,000 “Release Fee”

Interior Minister Sar Sokha has told a task force to investigate Lieutenant General Run Rathveasna, director of the Tourism Police Department, after a complaint said his officers arrested a 25-year-old Phnom Penh man without a warrant, held him at department HQ, and let him go only after he paid a half million dollars. Huot Sitthireach says he was picked up on July 13, 2024 on a breach-of-trust allegation, and he filed his complaint the next day naming Rathveasna. He wants the $505,000 returned in addition to $200,000 in damages. The Tourism Police have no authority to arrest or detain suspects outside their statutory duties, as that power is reserved to the penal police, and, in any event, requires a warrant. Rathveasna could not be reached for comment.

Read more: Khmer Times

Tokyo Give PP Its First Free Patrol Boats

Patrol boats and communications gear worth about $3.2 million, are on their way to the Cambodian military under Japan's Official Security Assistance program. It’s the country's first shipment under OSA, a program that Tokyo reserves for "like-minded" militaries.

Factory Count up a Quarter to 3,319

Cambodia counted 3,319 large-scale operating factories as of June, up a quarter compared to last year, with $27.8 billion in cumulative investment and providing about 1.3 million jobs, Industry Minister Hem Vanndy says. That works out to roughly 664 new plants at an average of about $8.4 million apiece. Vanndy said the growth shows that Cambodia is moving beyond cheap-labor manufacturing toward AI, automation and robotics. That might be true, but no breakdown was given of how many of the new factories will be running automated lines compared to garment plants doing the same piece work as before.

Read more: Khmer Times

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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Cambodia 20260713

August Whitcraft — Mon, 13 Jul 2026 01:35:09 GMT

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IMF Cuts Growth Forecast to 3%

Real GDP growth is expected to slow to 3% in 2026, the IMF said, which is appreciably down from 5.3% last year and would be half the 6.0% pace posted in 2024. Inflation is expected to find 5.6% this year as higher fuel prices run into a mix of problems, including reputational damage from the cyber scam industry, tepid tourist arrivals, weak external demand, and a real estate sector still struggling as regulatory forbearance winds down. The Article IV mission recommended targeted cash support for vulnerable households instead of broad fuel subsidies, as well as putting the heat on Phnom Penh to expand the tax base instead of leaning further on debt. The riel has stayed more-or-less steady against the dollar, which remains an anchor for the heavily dollarized economy.

Read more: Nikkei Asia (border fallout), Cambodia Investment Review (IMF review)

US Takes 42% of Exports

Merchandise exports were $17.09 billion in 1H 2026, up almost a fifth year-on-year, and the United States bought $7.17 billion of it. Garments, footwear, and travel goods, the sector that keeps 1.1 million workers on payroll in 1,800 factories, grew more slowly (6.2% to $7.99 billion) and still made up almost half of all exports. Vietnam was a distant second at $2.52 billion, followed by China at $943 million, Japan at $907 million, and Canada at $634 million. Imports rose faster, coming in at $19.76 billion and leaving a $2.67 billion trade deficit for the half.

Read more: Khmer Times (export markets), Fibre2Fashion (product mix), Xinhua (trade deals)

Border Blast Wounds Four in Green

A blast in an Oddar Meanchey cashew plantation on July 5 wounded four Cambodian soldiers. Phnom Penh says it was an unexplained explosion behind a departing patrol, but Bangkok insists its troops were only guarding road construction and that the detonation happened on Cambodian soil. No independent evidence has supported either story. Malaysia's defense chief, General Malek Razak Sulaiman, took a tour of the ASEAN Observer Team's post in Banteay Meanchey on July 8 before promising closer military ties with Vong Pisen, another visit Phnom Penh is using to put outside eyes on the border. The resettlement effort is also taking shape, with six new Rong Cham villages outside Slakram, nicknamed "Waiting Villages" by Hun Sen, built to replace the shuttered Kandorl Pagoda tent camp. The Interior Ministry claims that more than 640,000 people are still affected and 20,840, including 6,066 children, remain unable to go home because Thai troops are still in their villages.

Read more: Cambodia Daily (blast site), Khmer Times (new villages), Asian News Network (observer team), Cambodianess (military ties)

Phnom Penh Files Another Protest Over Razor Wire

Cambodia has filed a new protest accusing Thai troops of building fortifications inside its territory. Phnom Penh says that’s in violation of the December 2025 ceasefire. The Foreign Affairs Ministry documented two incidents in Oddar Meanchey, saying Thai soldiers excavated an embankment and strung razor wire near Boundary Pillar No. 14 in O'Smach commune, then laid more wire near Boundary Pillar No. 22 in Banteay Ampil district. Phnom Penh says the work breaches the 1904 Franco-Siamese Convention, the 1907 Treaty, and the de-escalation measures agreed at the December 2025 General Border Committee meeting. It wants Thailand to stop construction at the two named sites and "any other areas unlawfully occupied by Thai forces since last year."

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (diplomatic protest), Khmer Times (site damage)

El Nino Dries Out Rice Paddy

Rainfall has been reduced by as much as half since early 2026, and the Water Resources Ministry expects El Nino to continue getting stronger. Hun Manet told his people to coordinate monitoring, secure food reserves, and make sure that emergency response plans were refreshed.

Read more: Cambodianess (farmer concerns), CamboJA News (weather outlook)

Photo by sam onn chan on Unsplash

H-Pay Liquidator Says the Money Is Gone

Reach & Partners, the liquidator for H-Pay, said that the payment platform is insolvent and had been operating beyond the license granted by the National Bank of Cambodia. The company was offering loans, crypto remittances, and fixed-term deposits that its permit… did not permit. The reveal comes three months after H-Pay and predecessor Huione Pay put a freeze on withdrawals, and weeks after Washington extended sanctions to H-Pay as Huione Pay's successor over alleged billions in scam-connected laundering. Creditors had until May 25 to file claims, and authorities have already said that nobody is likely to get his money back. Huione Pay’s its license was quietly revoked in September 2024, but the central bank didn’t disclose that publicly until December 2025.

Read more: CamboJA News

Authorities Deport 1,362 Scammers

Cambodia sent 1,362 foreigners from 24 countries home during a 10-day sweep of online scam compounds, including 79 Thai nationals. The pace, more than 136 removals a day, suggests authorities are clearing suspects out rather than letting cases pile up in court. No breakdown of the other 23 nationalities was shared.

Read more: Khmer Times

Tokyo Kidney Broker Arrested Over Transplant

Tokyo police arrested Hiromichi Kikuchi, 66, his son Mitsuru Kikuchi, 42, and Takaki Ando, 66, on charges of brokering a living-donor kidney transplant for a Tokyo patient at a hospital in central Phnom Penh. Japanese media said it is the country's first criminal case over paid organ-transplant arranging. The patient gave roughly 25 million yen in U.S. dollars to a Chinese coordinator in January for "local medical expenses," then wired another 12.3 million yen to the trio's Tokyo association as physician honoraria and administrative fees. Chinese doctors performed the surgery. The donor was reportedly a Cambodian woman. Kikuchi arranged this transplant after being released on bail from a 2023 arrest for running unauthorized transplants in Belarus, a case that ended in an eight-month prison sentence. The Phnom Penh hospital director told Asahi Shimbun only, "I do not want to talk about it."

NIAID Signs $36 Million Disease Research Deal

The US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Cambodia's Ministry of Health agreed to a five-year, $36 million research pact, the first Asian deal under Washington's "America First Global Health Strategy." Four institutions, including the National Center for Parasitology, Entomology, and Malaria Control and the National Institute of Public Health, will work with NIAID on dengue, chikungunya, zika, H5N1, and antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. The US Embassy said the goal was to "contain outbreaks before they reach the United States."

Baby Is Fifth Bird Flu Case This Year

A nine-month-old girl from Prek Takong village in Phnom Penh's Meanchey tested positive for H5N1 this week, the fifth human case this year. Doctors have her in intensive care while health teams try to find the source, sample close contacts, and distribute Tamiflu as a precaution. The previous case, in April, was a 66-year-old woman in Svay Rieng near the Vietnam border. In Kandal's Koh Thom district, dengue has affected more than 570 people, with six severe cases sent to Kantha Bopha Hospital.

Read more: Khmer Times (public advisory), Khmer Times (health ministry), Cambodianess (poultry risk), Outbreak News Today (animal carriers)

France Previews Trade Agenda Before Macron Visit

Nicolas Forissier was in Phnom Penh this week laying the groundwork for the arrival of Emmanuel Macron for the Francophonie Summit in mid-November. With Mines and Energy Minister Keo Rottanak, Forissier talked about an 800-megawatt hydropower project valued at $1.2 billion, and a Phnom Penh waste-to-energy plan, though France wants more details (read: studies) before it cuts any checks. Forissier interestingly mentioned that French airlines are looking into direct flights, which would be a boon.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (trade agenda), Cambodianess (business forum), CamboJA News (energy plans)

Kem Ley's Archive Opens

Ten years after Kem Ley was gunned down at a Phnom Penh gas station, digital security consultant Nget Moses released a 71,000-file, 48-gigabyte archive of his speeches, notes, and research, including the full 2016 "Country Road Map" that pushed for opposition wins in the 2017 commune elections. LICADHO and ADHOC used the anniversary to renew their calls into a new investigation of who, if anyone, helped Oeuth Ang plan the killing that he blamed on a $3,000 debt. .

Read more: The Star (anniversary protest), CamboJA News (archive release), Cambodia Daily (accomplice questions), Khmer Times (reconciliation)

High Fuel Prices Drive EV Sales Boom

Cambodia has registered 14,056 EVs since 2021; 3,693 of them in March through May as fuel prices went through the roof. BYD and GAC lead sales.

$43 Million Tiger Plan Stalled by Lack of Prey

Cambodia hopes to fly in tigers from India to repopulate the Cardamom Mountains, nearly twenty years after the last confirmed sighting was caught on a camera trap. The $43 million reintroduction would bring several of India's more than 3,600 tigers into protected rainforest in the southwest. There’s a hitch, however. Indian tiger biologist Ullas Karanth, who once led surveys of Cambodia's tigers, says prey populations "went extinct" and have not recovered enough to feed the new arrivals. Consultant Jimmy Borah of Aaranyak disagrees, however, and says that camera trapping shows that there’s enough prey for initial arrivals and that "the conservation message is more important right now than worrying about prey availability." Tigers were meant to arrive in 2024. A May plan approved by the Environment Ministry now proposes arrivals beginning next year, but funding is still being negotiated after a carbon-credit project that was expected to finance the effort fell through.

Cambodia 20260706

August Whitcraft — Mon, 06 Jul 2026 02:24:39 GMT

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Scam Crackdown Fills the Prisons

Cambodian prisons are on track for 85,000 detainees by the end of 2028, and that’s up from about 57,000 today. Almost 5,000 were added so far this year. The scam crackdown is doing most of the work. It’s not a happy place to end up, as each detainee gets one square meter (compare vs a UN standard of three), each officer has to keep an eye on up to 25 prisoners, and more than 300 retired staff have not been replaced. The director-general of prisons went on state TV to warn that conditions like these breed riots, rebellions, and escapes.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (prisons), Straits Times (repatriation), Asia Sentinel (Huione)

Barbed Wire Won't Wait for the Diplomats

Thai forces put up some new barbed wire on two border segments, one in the Mom Bei area of Preah Vihear Province and another at Chob Ruan in Oddar Meanchey's Trapeang Prasat District. Phnom Penh filed a protest, natch. The Foreign Ministry said it was a "persistent" sovereignty violation and said the acts breach both the MOU 2000 demarcation agreement and the de-escalation commitments both sides signed in December.

Read more: Cambodianess (survey team), Asian News Network (UN conciliation), CamboJA News (displaced residents)

Open Skies, Open Wallet

Cambodia and the United States signed their first bilateral air transport agreement at the State Department in Washington. The deal gives US cargo carriers seventh-freedom rights, meaning they can now fly between the United States and third countries without those routes touching Cambodia at all (although, that flexibility will be more relevant to logistics networks than to any direct passenger service). The signing came shortly after the DFC approved $100 million in financing for Techo International Airport, making the aviation package look like it may be a coordinated commercial play. Bilateral trade was $5.96 billion so far in the first five months of 2026, up about a third year-on-year. American tourist arrivals are down nearly 12 percent over the same period, to 91,020.

Read more: Asian News Network (tourism), The Diplomatic Insight (airport loan), Aviation Week (open skies)

One War Undoes Eighteen Years of Work

Cambodia celebrated the 18th anniversary of Preah Vihear Temple's UNESCO listing with an appeal for international restoration aid. Thai military attacks in July and December 2025 reportedly damaged the ancient complex and forced about 16,000 residents from the heritage area. The culture ministry says it is the worst destruction ever inflicted on the monument, and 18 years of conservation work have been undone.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (recovery), Khmer Times (aid appeal)

The Highest Court, The Lowest Bar

The Supreme Court upheld activist Koet Saray's four-year sentence for incitement, in a conviction related to his advocacy for villagers in a land dispute with rubber company Seladamex in Preah Vihear province. The U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention says his detention is arbitrary, but Phnom Penh seems unbothered. The ruling came two days after Rong Chhun, the former labor leader turned Nation Power Party adviser, petitioned the Justice Ministry for a retrial. The Supreme Court last month upheld Chhun's incitement conviction over public comments about online scam operations and the Vietnam border, set aside his four-year prison term, but kept him under three years of judicial supervision, banned him from politics for five years, and barred him from leaving Phnom Penh. About 20 party members walked him to the ministry. The ministry spokesperson has not yet responded to his petition.

Read more: CamboJA News (Koet Saray), CamboJA News (Rong Chhun)

Photo by allPhoto Bangkok on Unsplash

NagaWorld Standoff Gets Another Court Date

About 50 members of the Labor Rights Supported Union of Khmer Employees of NagaWorld met outside the Phnom Penh casino complex after at least 18 former workers received new court summonses over "intentional damage under aggravating circumstances" connected to a 2021 strike. Cambodia's longest-running labor dispute is now grinding toward its fifth year. Union president Chhim Sithar, who did a two year stretch on an incitement conviction, is asking political parties to take notice ahead of next year's commune and parliamentary elections. About 70 LRSU-affiliated workers are still holding out, rejecting company compensation offers they say are inadequate, and hundreds more who were laid off before the strike remain in limbo. The Labor Ministry, which the union accuses of failing to mediate neutrally, says it has done what it can while the courts do their work.

Read more: CamboJA News

A Billion Dollars, Five Hundred at a Time

Four months after APD Bank put emergency withdrawal limits in place, customers still cannot withdraw more than $500 a day from their accounts. The bank refuses to confirm if and when that will change. APD held more than $1 billion in customer deposits at the end of 2024. Nearly all of the bank is owned by chairman Wang Dong, who took Cambodian citizenship in 2015 under the name Vong Pech. Cambodia is one of the last ASEAN countries with no depositor insurance scheme, a shortcoming that officials have been jawboning about for more than a decade.

Read more: CamboJA News

Full Seats but Thin Learning

Cambodia has almost cracked universal primary enrollment, but the kids sitting in the classrooms aren’t learning much. Grade 6 students got about half of the Khmer language questions right and less than half of the math questions on the 2021 National Learning Assessment, according to a World Bank report. The public purse is not even doing all the heavy lifting either. Families currently have to cover roughly three-fifths of total education spending; government spending on education is at 2.2 percent of GDP, and about three-quarters of that goes straight to salaries.

Read more: Khmer Times

King Returns Home

King Norodom Sihamoni arrived back at Techo International Airport in Phnom Penh after more than four months in Beijing for prostate cancer surgery and recovery. Queen Mother Norodom Monineath Sihanouk came back with him. Senate President Hun Sen, National Assembly President Khuon Sudary, Prime Minister Hun Manet, and several other senior royals met him on the tarmac. Sihamoni was diagnosed in April, had surgery on April 20, and had been recovering at the royal residence in the Chinese capital since.

Read more: Khmer Times

ABA Sells the Full Stack

Cambodia's largest commercial bank is now in the insurance business. ABA Bank, which says it has more than 6 million customers, has tied up with Maybank-backed Etiqa General Insurance Cambodia to sell fire, auto, and travel coverage through the ABA Mobile app. Fire cover is at the forefront of the rollout; auto and travel will follow. Policies are issued instantly, claims and support run in-app, and CEO Askhat Azhikhanov is looking into a "fully integrated financial system."

Cambodia 20260629

August Whitcraft — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 12:54:20 GMT

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Retired Strongman Goes to Beijing, Brings Home a Security Pact

Hun Sen, technically Cambodia's Senate president, got head-of-state treatment at the Great Hall of the People, sitting across from Xi Jinping for talks that resulted in a security partnership for defense, law enforcement, and efforts to “stamp out” telecom fraud, which Xi said was a “tumor.” The visit came two months after Beijing and Phnom Penh held the first meeting of their "2+2" dialogue, bringing together foreign and defense ministers, so the direction of travel was not much of a surprise. What's new is the explicit security label on a relationship Beijing has long dressed up in warmer, fuzzier terms about ironclad friendship and shared futures. Xi thanked Phnom Penh for backing the one-China principle and said trust should be raised "to a higher level." Hun Sen, who ran the country for 38 years before passing the premiership to his son Hun Manet, told Xi that no matter how the international situation develops, Cambodia will uphold friendship with China and support all Chinese efforts to oppose Taiwan independence.

Read more: China Daily (trade corridors), Modern Diplomacy (cybercrime scope), Chosun (U.S. re-engagement), CGTN (Premier Li meeting), AZ News (CPP anniversary)

Treasury Moves Faster Than PM's Epiphany

The U.S. Treasury sanctioned nine people and 26 entities connected to the Prince Group around the time Hun Manet told a business forum that admitting that cyberfraud is real is the first step toward a solution. OFAC's latest round has put Hu Xiaowei, Prince Group's second-in-command after extradited founder Chen Zhi, in the spotlight, along with a web of firms in Hong Kong, Singapore, the British Virgin Islands, Britain and Thailand, including Future Wind Financial Company Limited, which Treasury says was the recipient of millions taken from cryptocurrency scam victims. CCU Commercial Bank was also designated, making it the sixth Cambodian bank sanctioned, closed down, or placed into liquidation because of a connection to fraud. Hu was recently arrested in Osaka.

Read more: CamboJA News (compound headcount), Khmer Times (Hun Manet), Amnesty International (survivor testimonies), Khmer Times (reputation war), Inside Asian Gaming (seized assets)

Counting Heads, Missing the Wallet

In the first five months of 2026, international arrivals fell by almost half to 1.54 million, evan as Cambodia’s neighbors reported at least holding steady. Vietnam was up almost 15 percent, Laos was up 8 percent, and Thailand was more or less flat. The Thai land border closure did most of the immediate damage; Thai arrivals remain down more than 96 percent and Lao arrivals are down more than 91 percent. The 6.7 million arrivals reported in 2024, celebrated as a return to pre-pandemic form, rested on a near-doubling of land crossings as air arrivals stayed stuck at barely half their 2019 level. The high-value markets, the U.S., Australia, UK and France, fell 10 to 16 percent, roughly a quarter million visitors who punch well above their weight in spending. The government's response is a partnership between the National Stadium and the Ministry of Tourism to develop sports tourism and sell the rainy season as a feature somehow.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (air arrival ratio), Travel and Tour World (visa-free policy)

Watchdog Bites as Owner Shows It the Door

The IFC's internal watchdog spent four years investigating Cambodian microfinance, published a 142-page report finding the lender broke its own environmental and social rules, and then saw the IFC board reject the findings immediately with a flat declaration of "no policy noncompliance." The Compliance Advisor Ombudsman's investigation, sparked by a complaint filed on behalf of 18 borrowers, showed forced land sales, children pulled from school for work, and apparent debt-driven suicides, with particular harm in Indigenous communities where borrowers often cannot read Khmer loan documents. CAO Director General Janine Ferretti resigned the next day. Cambodia has the highest level of (once-celebrated) microcredit debt per capita in the world.

Fourteen Years for a Facebook Photo

The Supreme Court upheld 14-year treason sentences against Phorn Sopheap and Pheap Pheara, two journalists arrested last year after posting Facebook photos from a reporting trip near the Thai border. One image, showing the pair with soldiers at the centuries-old Ta Krabei temple, was republished by Thai media as evidence that Cambodia had laid new landmines, a claim Phnom Penh denies. The conviction under Article 445 of the Criminal Code, for "supplying a foreign state with information prejudicial to national defense," has now survived the Siem Reap Provincial Court, the Battambang Appeal Court, and the Supreme Court. Only the king can now overturn it, if he finds himself moved to do so.

Read more: AP News (RSF ranking, minister), Bangkok Post (military positions charge), The Star (journalists' ages)

Photo by Sebastian Latorre on Unsplash

Thailand's Map Draws Itself Out

Thailand's unilaterally produced L7017 map, which Bangkok has used to argue its border claims, also places Khnar Temple and Ta Moan Thom Temple inside Cambodian territory, the State Secretariat of Border Affairs said, referring to satellite imagery that it says shows both countries' boundary lines landing on the same side. The cartographic own-goal was delivered as Phnom Penh filed another official protest over Thai forces allegedly clearing land and installing razor wire near Boundary Pillar No. 26 in Oddar Meanchey. The Cambodian Mine Action Center piled on with a separate rebuttal, saying manufacturing data on an MK-84 bomb found on Cambodian soil shows it was produced decades after the Vietnam War ended.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (Pillar 26 protest), Khmer Times (L7017 temple claim), Khmer Times (MK-84 manufacturer)

Confess on Camera to Join the Party

Human Rights Watch reviewed more than 140 videos showing a new Cambodian dance: detain an opposition activist, then dangle release in exchange for a televised apology and a CPP membership card. The playbook has been run over a decade that’s been captured in footage and in interviews.

Two Million Dollars No One Can Find

The Interior Ministry leaned on a Sunday Guardian report to warn political parties against taking foreign money, but every party and civil society group named in the piece has denied knowing anything (!) about a $2 million NED funding proposal. The Alliance Towards the Future coalition, which brings together the Candlelight Party, Khmer Will Party, Grassroots Democratic Party, Cambodia Reform Party and Kampuchea Niyum Party, said the article was an attempt to "raise suspicion and slander." COMFREL's Korn Savang said he had not paid attention to The Sunday Guardian because it offered no verified sources. To be fair, neither the alleged proposal nor any supporting evidence was published. Commune elections are next year, the national vote should follow in 2028.

Read more: CamboJA News

From Stitching Shirts to Soldering Sensors

Long pigeonholed as a garment-and-footwear economy, Cambodia is now home to ten vehicle assembly plants under the government's automotive roadmap. Ford's RMA Group plant in Pursat has become a domestic sales leader, delivering thousands of vehicles built by local technicians, and Toyota has set up assembly inside the Phnom Penh Special Economic Zone. The groundwork was laid by Japan's Minebea, an early anchor at the Royal Group SEZ that moved from basic assembly into micro-motors, LED backlights and precision electronics. Denso followed, building sensors, oil coolers and magnetos for vehicles and motorbikes.

Read more: Khmer Times

Two Lenders on a Single Grid

The ADB and World Bank approved a combined $178 million for Cambodia's power grid, with the ADB's $63.44 million package funding a 250MW/500MWh battery storage system at the Takeo substation and the World Bank's $115 million being positioned more generally at grid reliability and industrial efficiency. Both packages are targeting a 2030 deadline, when Cambodia wants to have 70 percent of its entry being of the “clean” variety. The Takeo battery, built to capture excess solar and send it out during peak loads, is also expected to feed into cross-border power trade with Vietnam.

Read more: The Asset (emissions), Khmer Times (minister quotes), Energy Storage News (bid deadline)

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Cambodia 20260622

August Whitcraft — Mon, 22 Jun 2026 04:09:04 GMT

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Cambodia Keeps The Pressure On

At a UN meeting in New York, Cambodia defended its decision to pursue compulsory conciliation with Thailand, saying that bilateral talks were no longer viable. Ambassador Keo Chhea told the New York assembly that Thai military provocations had precluded continued direct talks (as evidence, he mentioned Thai forces raising national flags at the Thmor Da International Border Checkpoint in Pursat). Bangkok has also ditched the 1:200,000 colonial-era maps in favor of a 1:50,000 version that conveniently redraws contested territory. Cambodian PM Hun Manet used a meeting with Thai PM Anutin Charnvirakul on the sidelines of the ASEAN-Russia summit in Kazan to press Thailand to appoint a Joint Boundary Commission chief and restart border demarcation work that has been paused since the December 27 joint statement. Anutin downplayed the exchange, describing it as little more than “pulling each other aside by the elbow.” He also brushed off questions about reopening border checkpoints, saying he had no intention of raising the issue because “Thai people would be furious.”

Read more: The Star (Anutin), Khmer Times (UNCLOS push), Khmer Times (timeline), Cambodianess (border flags)

Rong Chhun Can Walk but Not Run

Cambodia’s Supreme Court upheld Rong Chhun’s conviction on Friday but suspended his four-year prison sentence in favor of three years’ probation. This means he’ll stay out of prison but cannot vote, run for office, or leave Phnom Penh for the period. A five-year ban on his political rights neatly covers the 2027 commune elections and the 2028 national polls. The original charge resulted from Facebook comments about online scam operations and the Vietnam border demarcation, subjects sensitive enough to have landed him in prison once before, in 2021. The Supreme Court also walked back a lifetime ban on his political rights, reducing it to five years. "If the powerful leader wants black, the court will paint it black," Chhun told some 300 supporters outside the courthouse, where police had blocked surrounding streets. His lawyers are weighing a royal pardon appeal to King Norodom Sihamoni. A Phnom Penh court ordered the seizure of his home in April 2025 over a 400 million riel ($100,000) damages fine from the earlier conviction.

Read more: AP News (government defense), CamboJA News (asset seizure), UCA News (related sentence), Malay Mail (Hun Manet), Khmer Times (residency)

Freed Hostages Left Behind

Thousands of trafficked workers freed during the scam crackdown are now sleeping rough in Phnom Penh or eating one meal of plain rice a day in immigration detention, unable to afford flights home. According to Amnesty International, more than 70% of the scam compounds it identified were left untouched. Cambodian authorities say the crackdown has been a success, claiming nearly 290,000 voluntary departures and 19,000 deportations. The Phnom Penh Municipal Court detained 19 more foreign nationals in three cyber fraud cases and jailed six bank account sellers connected to more than $253,000 in losses. Discord and Patreon sites got blocked as part of a set of 31 domains that were flagged for illegal activity, but Telegram, where researchers say active recruitment networks are still operating openly, has thus far remained available.

Read more: NPR (visa fines), Khmer Times (fraud law), Cambodia Daily (WhatsApp), CamboJA News (blocked apps), ABC (Amnesty)

Phnom Penh Registry Gets a Memory Wipe

The Ministry of Commerce has, without fanfare, made its business registry less transparent. Former director records have disappeared, company searches now require an exact legal name, and foreign VPN users are increasingly being met with a “maintenance” page. The changes came in stages with no public notice. A May decree did away with the former requirement for companies to report changes to branch directors. The ministry's spokesperson said the changes were the result of a "technical issue" and directed questions to a hotline that nobody was answering at last check. Researchers say the registry kept going dark for months at a time before the overhaul, which is coming at the same time as crackdowns on the country's multibillion-dollar online scam industry and a string of sanctions against prominent tycoons.

Read more: CamboJA News

Cambodia Eyes a Russian Trade Deal

Hun Manet met Vladimir Putin in Kazan, the headline event of an ASEAN-Russia summit that also served as the 70th anniversary of Cambodia-Russia ties. The visit produced two commercial threads worth watching. Manet spent part of the visit trying to hustle for a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, a five-country bloc whose exports grew nearly 38% in 2025. GAZ Group's export director sat down with Manet to talk about entering the local auto sector, pitching a nearly hundred-year-old commercial vehicle maker that runs 15 plants and ships to 43 countries.

Read more: Khmer Times (FTA push), Khmer Times (GAZ meeting), Fibre2Fashion (EEC chairman), Kremlin RU (Putin)

Photo by Simon Soy on Unsplash

Half a Peak and a Prayer

Chinese arrivals came in at 331,199 in the first four months of 2026, making them Cambodia's largest foreign visitor group and explaining why Phnom Penh's four-month visa-free trial looks more like a recovery bid than a victory lap. The government wants 600,000 Chinese visitors by October 15 and 1.2 million for the year (compare to a 2019 peak of 2.36 million). Air Cambodia ran a promotional event at Guangzhou's Baiyun International Airport to help close the gap, but the bigger constraint is in the air. Cambodia is still an outlier in China’s aviation recovery story. Flights between the two countries are still down by more than half from 2019 levels, even through China-Southeast Asia routes overall were down by less than a tenth. Direct services from Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou to Siem Reap have yet to return.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (regional comparison), Travel and Tour World (Guangzhou), Travel and Tour World (first group), China Daily (projection)

Factory Firing Sends 1,800 Walking

About 1,800 workers at AJ Textile in Kampong Speu walked off the job after the factory axed Chork Mealea, a supervisor of more than two years and a CCAWDU member, with no prior notice and no stated reason. More than 100 protested outside and about 1,700 stopped work inside, taking the opportunity to raise further issues of salary miscalculations and sick leave deductions. Workers got back on the job after Labor Ministry intervention, but Mealea was not reinstated; the provincial labor department said her contract had expired. Board chairman Shun Yao denied any union connection, helpfully reminding everyone that "in China, we don't have this kind of issue regarding unions." CCAWDU says at least seven workers involved in union organizing have been let go from garment factories in the past six months.

Read more: CamboJA News

Still Defending Hanoi After Forty-Nine Years

At a ceremony in Tboung Khmum province, Supreme Adviser Tea Banh took the 49th anniversary of Hun Sen's 1977 crossing into Vietnam as an opportunity to share a warning to the diaspora. Critics who don't appreciate what Vietnamese forces did for Cambodia should "remain abroad," he said, because returning home "would not be easy for them." The occasion honored the oft-told story of Hun Sen's trek through forests, streams and minefields to get Hanoi's help, in a move that eventually brought down Pol Pot. Tea Banh dismissed opponents as ungrateful extremists who no longer thought of Cambodia as their homeland, and expressed "deep gratitude" for the sacrifices of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers.

Read more: Khmer Times (historical timeline), VOV News (CPP framing)

One Environmental Issue Remains

The environment ministry counted 896 crimes tackled and 43 people jailed in the first five months of the year, with offenses running from illegal logging and wildlife poaching to taking over state land. Rangers also seized dozens of homemade firearms and removed more than 11,000 wire snares from the country’s 73 protected areas. Five members of Mother Nature Cambodia have been behind bars since July 2024, serving six to eight years on charges of plotting against the state.

New to Science and Gone by Quarry

A Fauna & Flora survey of 64 limestone caves across the karst hills of Battambang turned up at least 11 species new to science, among them a pit viper, a flying snake, geckos, micro-snails and millipedes, with four still being formally described. The fieldwork ran from November 2023 to July 2025. Each limestone hill is effectively its own island, allowing species to evolve separately from nearby populations. The downside is that many of those species exist nowhere else. At Phnom Takriem, quarrying has already removed about a fifth of the hill. Globally only around one percent of karst landscapes enjoy any formal protection in what could be a lost opportunity for conservation.

Glass Threads Bring Hard Cash

Hong Kong fiber-optic maker WCFO is building a new plant that will about double its production capacity for fiber-optic cable components, feeding the data center boom happening in Southeast Asia as AI investment accelerates. Demand for the wiring that connects servers inside large facilities has been booming as hyperscalers and regional operators race to pour concrete across the region. WCFO already runs in the country, so the new plant will effectively sit beside its existing factory.

Cambodia 20260615

August Whitcraft — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 07:09:13 GMT

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Hun Sen Admits Fault For Thailand Border Conflict While New Chinese Tanks Arrive

Hun Sen stood in front of thousands of displaced families at a relocation site in Banteay Meanchey this week and, to the surprise of some, took personal blame. The border conflict with Thailand, he told the crowd, was his fault, not his son Hun Manet's. As Prime Minister with full authority, he had trusted his relationship with former Thai PM Prayut Chan-o-cha so completely that he steered more of the national budget toward social services, especially healthcare and education, than to defense. Days later, footage circulated of 39 Chinese T-59D tanks being unloaded at Sihanoukville port, the first installment of an order of 93 units, equipped with a 105mm main gun and upgraded night-vision. Some reports suggest that the total number of tanks on order may be more than a hundred. Thai Defense Minister Adul Boonthamcharoen said he was keeping an eye on the situation, and said there was no sign the tanks had been moved towards the border.

Read more: Cambodia Daily (Thai encroachment), CamboJA News (casualties, Australian aid), Janes (T-59D specs), Cambodianess (390-tank inventory), Cambodia Daily (tank unit cost)

Sar Sokha Lawyers Up

Interior Minister Sar Sokha signed contracts worth more than a quarter million USD with a pair of U.S. law firms in May, Justice Department filings show. His intention was to use them to push back against proposed sanctions legislation that would require Trump to freeze the assets of officials accused of ties to scam networks. Seiden Law and Nelson Mullins will handle outreach to Congress, the Treasury's OFAC office, and the media. The ministry's spokesman, meanwhile, has been talking up "remarkable results" after 95 scam centers were raided in May.

Read more: Khaosod English (accountability gap), Cambodianess (May raid breakdown)

Hun Sen Cracks Down on Mystery-Meat Packages

Phnom Penh police arrested 14 warehouse owners after June 10 raids on cold-storage facilities in Russey Keo and Prek Pnov districts turned up about 220 tons of frozen Thai-labeled meat and fish. After the raids, Hun Sen, who on June 11 asked authorities to look into suspected smuggling sites, went further in a social media post, saying every land-border import from Thailand is illegal, and Cambodians should be aware that products manufactured in 2026 cannot possibly be old stock given that the border has been closed for nearly a year already. Officials are also checking Khmer-labeled products for false relabeling, which means that the supply chain problems might run deeper than a few freezers in Russey Keo. A separate raid on a Sen Sok cold-storage facility found only meat from India, China and Australia. As of yet, no criminal charges against the 14 arrested owners have been announced.

Read more: The Star (Hun Sen), Khmer Times (scope of raids), Cambodia Daily (CCF operation lead)

Trade Threatened by USTR Tariff

The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has proposed a 10% additional tariff on Cambodia for failing to ban imports of goods made with forced labor, this comes as part of an investigation into 60 countries including Vietnam, Japan, Singapore. Cambodian exports to the US were up by almost a third in the first five months of 2026 as compared to the same period in 2025, so there's more trade in the crosshairs than there was a year ago. Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Pen Sovicheat has neither accepted nor rejected the investigation, promising instead to "engage constructively" and submit comments by the deadline. Phnom Penh's defense is based on Article 15 of the Labor Law and its 1969 ratification of ILO Convention No. 29.

HIV Status First to Reach a New Bar in Asia-Pacific

Cambodia has reached the 95-95-95 HIV targets, the first country in Asia-Pacific to do so, the government and UNAIDS announced June 12. That means 95% of people with HIV know their status, 95% of those are on treatment, and 95% of those people have been able to suppress the virus. Cambodia was already one of seven countries worldwide to clear the earlier 90-90-90 bar in 2017, which was three years ahead of the global deadline. The next goal is fewer than 250 new infections yearly by 2030, which would be down from ~950 in 2025.

Read more: Khmer Times

Photo by Siborey Sean on Unsplash

New York Met's Khmer Shelf Gets Lighter

Three stone sculptures departed Manhattan for Phnom Penh on June 14. The move is part of the latest haul resulting from a decade-long prosecution of what is known as the Latchford-Wiener trafficking network. Among the pieces coming home are a 7th-century lintel that Doris Wiener smuggled into New York in 1981, and a 10th-century Koh Ker Guardian Deity that sat in the Met from 1987 until prosecutors took it earlier this year. Its feet are still attached to a pedestal at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Cambodia. The Met has already returned 14 Khmer artifacts (beginning in December 2023) and Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg's Antiquities Trafficking Unit has so far convicted 18 people and returned almost 6,000 items to 38 countries. Extradition is pending for seven more traffickers.

Read more: Manhattanda (Harihara head), Cambodianess (Stung Treng lintel)

Cambodia’s First Wind Turbine Project Displeases Forest Locals

Construction crews are building turbines in Mondulkiri's highlands for what will be Cambodia's first wind power project, a 900-megawatt build backed by at least two firms, SchneiTec Energy and Indochina Wind Power. Electricity of Cambodia (EDC) will run the lines to the national grid. In response to the new installations, the Bunong communities that live under that grid connection held a ceremony to ask their ancestors for forgiveness for clearing sacred forest. Perhaps unsurprisingly, no company representatives showed up.

Read more: CamboJA News

Facebook Post Lands Two in Jail

The Phnom Penh Municipal Court sentenced three people to between 18 months and two years to prison this week over Facebook posts about last year's border tensions with Thailand. Ma Chandara, 45, a former primary school deputy director from Siem Reap, and Sun Dara, 43, each got two years and a $500 fine for “incitement” and “insulting a public official.” The deputy prosecutor said that every Cambodian has the right to free expression, but not for libel, defamation, or inciting hatred. Chandara was picked up in February after posting critical views about the border situation and the arrest of a journalist who had reported on water shortages affecting soldiers.

Read more: Khmer Times

Two Economic Time Bombs

Nearly $12.7 billion in distressed loans (that’s a quarter of GDP) are jamming up Cambodia's financial system. The problem isn't that the banks are insolvent, but that there's no efficient way to work the bad debt out of the system. Pressure is also on the rise for factories. All of the 3,266 operating factories need to move up the value chain before 2029, when LDC graduation begins reducing the advantages they have had until now as a result of EU and U.S. trade preferences. The World Bank puts the longer deadline at 2043, when the working-age population peaks. The two situations are not likely to resolve themselves.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review ($6B unlock), Cambodia Investment Review (factory headcounts), CamboJA News (demographic clock)

Chinese Nationals get Visa-Free Entry

Starting June 15, Chinese nationals can enter Cambodia visa-free for up to 14 days, multiple entries, no fees, only an e-arrival card, a four-month pilot running through October 15. The rules-relaxation will be handy for the occasion of the 11th Teochew Chinese Business Convention, which has been confirmed for December 2-5. It’s the first time the event will be held outside China, and about 400 delegates are expected to carry the pitch through diaspora and investor networks. The visitor numbers are already shifting, and Chinese arrivals were counted at 331,199 from January through April, putting China at the top of the source-market table. Chinese tourists arrivals were 1.2 million in 2025, a 41.5 percent rise from the year before.

Read more: The Star (minister quotes), Travel and Tour World (Teochew convention)

Courting Korean Capital in Incheon

Sun Chanthol led a 20-member delegation to Incheon for a Tuesday pitch at the Sheraton Grand Incheon Hotel, where about 200 Korean business leaders came together to hear it. The event was four months after the Incheon Chamber of Commerce signed an LOI with the Council for the Development of Cambodia in a deal born from joint police operations against scam networks running out of Phnom Penh and Sihanoukville. Korea has put $5.1 billion into Cambodia (996 registered) companies, and yearly trade last year was a record $1.05 billion. Chamber chairman Park Joo-bong had already flown to Phnom Penh twice, in March and May, in advance of Tuesday's meeting.

Samaiden Pulls the Plug on Cambodia

Malaysian renewable energy firm Samaiden Group has pulled the plug on two Cambodia MOUs signed in April and May 2023, after neither the Royal Group railway-corridor project nor a Kampong Seila biogas venture turned into a binding contract. The Cambodia subsidiary sent termination notices on June 12, and both agreements will expiring officially on July 12. Samaiden says the walkaway won't effect earnings for the financial year ending June 30, 2026; shares closed flat (in KL) at RM1.33, valuing the group at RM740 million.

Cambodia 20260608

August Whitcraft — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 02:48:02 GMT

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Phnom Penh Drags Bangkok to The Hague's Cousin

Hun Manet delivered notice of UNCLOS compulsory conciliation on June 2, sending a message to both Bangkok and the UN Secretary-General about the 26,000-square-kilometer Overlapping Claims Area in the Gulf of Thailand, a patch of seabed thought to hold up to $300 billion worth of oil and natural gas. The notice arrives shortly after Thailand tore up the 2001 MoU that had at least in theory kept the two sides talking, and it sets a 21-day timer on Bangkok to get it’s its own conciliators appointed or get the UN do it for them. Phnom Penh has already arranged its team, which is headed by Peter Taksoe-Jensen, the Danish diplomat who chaired the only previous use of this mechanism (the Australia-Timor-Leste commission that finished in 2018), and includes French ICJ veteran Jean-Marc Thouvenin, with Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn as Cambodia’s agent.

Read more: Khaosod English (Hun Manet framing), The Diplomat (conciliation mechanism), Ny1 (Anutin), CamboJA News ($300B reserves)

Petrol, Matches, and 1,181 Steps

Thai soldiers got their photos taken as they poured gasoline on a 325-meter wooden staircase leading to K'nar Temple before setting it on fire, destroying a 1,181-step access route that Cambodia built in 2017. The Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts also accused Thai forces of pulling down Hindu icons and swapping in Buddha statues in temples that it took control of in last year's border fighting. Thailand reportedly went even further by opening Ta Krabey to ticketed public visits and religious ceremonies over this past weekend which Phnom Penh said was not acceptable under the Franco-Siamese Treaties of 1904 and 1907. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told The Times that Bangkok was trying to manufacture a "fait accompli."

Read more: The Star (staircase), The Times (casualty & displacement), Khmer Times (international forums)

Open Skies, Open Wallet, Open Embassy

After 12 years of stop-start talks, the US and Cambodia closed an Open Skies Agreement during Deputy Assistant Secretary Hunt VanderToll's visit to Phnom Penh last Friday, clearing the way for direct commercial flights for the first time. The trip also brought a $100 million DFC financing commitment for Techo International Airport, routed through Canadia Group's OCIC after more than two years of due diligence work. The airport money still has to get congressional notification done before it can properly close, so keep that in mind before you break out the confetti. The White House also put forward Wisconsin's Christopher Anderson as nominee for the role of ambassador, filling a post empty since Patrick Murphy left in mid-2024.

Read more: Khmer Times (Boeing deal), Cambodianess (ceasefire), Khmer Times (VanderToll meetings), CamboJA News (Walker interim tenure), Cambodia Investment Review (OCIC due diligence)

Forced Labor, Forced Tariff

Cambodian exports will get an extra 10% US tariff under a June 2 USTR proposal targeting countries that fail to ban goods made with forced labor. Cambodia is one of 54 economies that the US claims does not have an effective legal prohibition, but its reciprocal trade commitments with Washington spared it the steeper 12.5% tier that’s been reserved for countries with who have neither measures nor commitments in place. Garments, footwear and travel goods, the backbone of Cambodian export revenues, are in the crosshairs. Written comments are due in about a month and public hearings will begin July 7. The Labor Ministry waved it off, saying there are no forced labor issues in Cambodia.

Read more: Khmer Times (analyst), Cambodianess (tariff)

From Wats to Vodka, Siem Reap Courting Moscow

International arrivals fell 46% in early 2026, with 1.01 million visitors in the first four months and ticket sales to Angkor Archaeological Park down 31.8% through May. The collapse has been seen from every major source market. Chinese and Vietnamese tourists, who together used to make up more than a third of arrivals, have largely stopped coming after trafficking cases tied to scam compounds poisoned the country's reputation in both Beijing and Hanoi. As part of work to stem the tide and resuscitate the moribund arrival figures, Lotus Group CEO Vladimir Palancica brought the first delegation of Russian tour operators to Siem Reap this week. He, and the group, were welcomed by State Secretary Neang Mao on behalf of Tourism Minister Huot Hak. The pitch leans on "high-yield" Russian visitors who typically stay five to seven days.

Read more: Travel and Tour World (airline adjustments), Travel and Tour World (luxury product pitch), Cambodia Investment Review (BRICS House launch)

Photo by allPhoto Bangkok on Unsplash

Hobson Offers Three Hundred Dollars a Hectare

Nearly 700 families in Preah Vihear met authorities and company reps Thursday over land disputes that go back to a nearly 6,000-hectare concession granted in 2012. China Great Cause moved onto farms in 2025 and cleared crops without notice, then offered $300 per hectare to residents who had worked the land for years. Global Green, tied to U.S.-sanctioned tycoon Try Pheap, did the same to cashew and cassava plots cultivated for decades, paying one farmer $3,987 for two hectares of cashew plantation to make way for a mining project. When one resident asked what he was supposed to do without his nine hectares, provincial officials suggested he could go work for the company that took them.

Read more: CamboJA News

Roofs for the Living, Ranks for the Dead

Hun Manet's government has handed out two very different forms of post-war relief. More than 11,600 people displaced from Banteay Meanchey and Preah Vihear have moved into government-built stilt homes with power and piped water, finished in March, but the new settlements offer little beyond shelter from the worst of the elements. Sok Horn, 62, who once ran a clothing shop in Boeung Trakuon, says customers are scarce because "they are all displaced people, and there is not much money." Her son Hour Kimhak, who used to make about $700 a month from a mobile phone shop before the fighting destroyed it, has no capital to start again and has struggled to find work. A decision Hun Manet signed in March and made public on June 3 gives Second Lieutenant commissions to 41 relatives of soldiers killed or seriously wounded. The promotions are being seen as a gesture to families of those lost in the 2025 border dispute, though the document isn’t explicit about that.

Read more: CamboJA News ($75 household aid), Cambodia Daily (Second Lieutenant appointments)

Seven Hundred Days and Counting

The Phnom Penh Court of Appeals postponed the appeals hearing for all 10 Mother Nature Cambodia convicts on June 2 and hasn’t set any new date yet. The five who are serving, including Yim Leanghy, who was given eight years for plotting against the government and insulting the king, are 700 days into terms of six to eight years. They are scattered between prisons hundreds of kilometers from their families and lawyers. Seventy-three civil society groups, from LICADHO and the Cambodian Center for Human Rights to Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, have signed an open letter to Hun Manet this month asking him to reverse the convictions before the Francophonie Summit arrives in Phnom Penh later this year.

Kith Meng's House, Kith Meng's Rules

Seven international chambers, including AmCham, EuroCham, and BritCham, brought 24 reform proposals to a CDC-hosted breakfast on June 4, and not a single one got any real opposition. Before the day was out, the Cambodia Chamber of Commerce had fired off a formal letter to Deputy PM Sun Chanthol defending its role as G-PSF Secretariat and warning that "no individual business association should bypass established mechanisms." The letter was signed by Kith Meng, who is also the chair of the G-PSF's Coordinating Committee.

Read more: Cambodia Investment Review (24 reform proposals), Cambodia Investment Review (CCC rebuttal)

Paid in Full, Plot Unknown

About 30 buyers of the Borey Morn Dany housing project come together outside the Land Management Ministry last week, about five years after paying for villas and townhouses that remain unbuilt on undemarked land. Him Lina spent nearly five years working in Japan, saved close to $20,000, bought a villa in 2021, and still can't point to his own plot. The ministry has issued land titles, but they cover ownership only, and buyers say the missing boundary lines make the paper useless as bank collateral. After the meeting, officials told buyers to submit more documents and wait for a future sit-down with the developer.

Read more: CamboJA News

A Holiday in Search of a Reason

A May 21 sub-decree designates July 11 as "National Population Day," instructing government bodies to help the public "address demographic shifts" and build "population resilience and harmony." What that means in practice, nobody seems to know, but we can think of some risqué activities that might help stem the decline. The Ministry of Planning didn't respond to questions. A former ministry spokesperson said he had no information. A Royal Academy researcher said he had only recently seen the decree and also had no information.

Cambodia 20260601

August Whitcraft — Mon, 01 Jun 2026 09:22:14 GMT

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No Peace for the Emerald Triangle

A year after Cambodian and Thai troops first swapped lead in the Emerald Triangle on May 28, 2025, in action that killed a Cambodian service member and gutted what was meant to be a celebration of 75 years of diplomatic ties, Phnom Penh is using the anniversary to accuse Bangkok of taking territory under cover of the ceasefire. Foreign Minister Prak Sokhonn told the UN Security Council on May 26 that Cambodia doesn’t recognize the "modification of the border by force or the creation of a de facto situation," before meeting with his Thai counterpart on the sidelines. Two rounds of fighting, the second in December which went on for more than three weeks, have knocked diplomatic relations down to second-secretary level. On May 28, Phnom Penh held a three-hour “Day of Reckoning” ceremony that pulled together Khmer Rouge remembrance, COVID-19 hardship stories and border-war footage to try and win hearts and minds. Deputy Prime Minister Hun Many was keen to remind everyone, however, that the event was "not intended to encourage Cambodian people to despise any nationality."

Read more: Cambodianess (investor confidence), Cambodia Daily (Sokhonn-Hossain meeting), Cambodianess (analyst voices), Cambodianess (Hun Many remarks)

Buddha Statues on Land, Gas Fields at Sea

Thailand has spent its time since the December 27 ceasefire doing things that don't look much like peacekeeping. There are now 36 Buddhist statues built in Preah Vihear and Oddar Meanchey provinces, two flagpoles planted in Preah Vihear, roads built, containers and barbed wire reinforced, and tourism activities running on what Phnom Penh claims is Cambodian territory. The Foreign Ministry's May 30 protest says all of this violates ceasefire points 2 and 3, which are supposed to require both sides to keep to their (then-)current positions and only use the existing border demarcation mechanisms. The same pressure campaign has also gone offshore, where Cambodia this month walked away from a 25-year joint exploration agreement over roughly 27,000 square kilometers of the Gulf of Thailand. The area is thought to hold up to 11 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and nearly $300 billion in combined oil and gas reserves. Energy Minister Keo Rottanak says conciliation under UNCLOS is now the only realistic path forward.

Read more: Cambodianess (UN Security Council), Modern Diplomacy (TotalEnergies interest)

Sokha Walks, But Not Far

Kem Sokha left his Tuol Kork house at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, freed by a royal pardon that Acting Head of State Hun Sen signed May 25 on behalf of King Sihamoni, (abroad being treated for cancer). Even as he’s been able to get out from under house arrest, his lifetime ban on political activity has not been relaxed. Nor has his five-year travel ban. Sokha, 72, greeted officials, but declined interviews, and said he planned to enter monkhood to show gratitude to his 101-year-old mother. The U.S., EU, UK, France, Germany, Australia, and Canada all welcomed the release, but most of them also suggested that “more” would be appropriate. The partial pardon is seen as mostly a play for Western goodwill, with Sokha visible enough to satisfy foreign critics but shackled enough to be no political threat. CPP spokesperson Chea Thirith said that the skeptics are "extremists."

Read more: CamboJA News (Western missions), CamboJA News (analyst dissent), Cambodia Daily (geopolitical motive), CamboJA News (Sokha's exit), Cambodia Daily (U.S. stance)

Hun Sen Shocked to Discover Scamming

About 300,000 foreign nationals have been arrested, deported, or have departed voluntarily under Cambodia's Anti-Telecom Fraud Law came into effect, Deputy PM Sar Sokha told Swiss Ambassador Pedro Zwahlen on Wednesday. Since January, the government also says that 91 casinos have been shut. Days earlier, Senate President Hun Sen told a Phnom Penh administration meeting he was "very surprised" to learn tens of thousands of scammers were operating in the country, even though the UN reported the figure to be about 100,000 way back in 2022. Since a May 22 sub-decree, senior police in Mondulkiri Province have been let go, and Phnom Penh Municipal Court issued an arrest warrant for a Banteay Meanchey provincial military police deputy chief of staff on charges of conspiracy in aggravated online fraud and money laundering.

Read more: CamboJA News (Hun Sen), Asia Gaming Brief (300K breakdown)

Cops Raid the Raid

More than 30 Kampot police and gendarmes, including a deputy provincial police commissioner, were arrested Wednesday after allegedly cutting the locks of a casino near the Prek Chak border crossing with Vietnam and “liberating” evidence that had been taken in an earlier anti-scam raid. The casino had already been raided for hosting scam operations. Provincial police chief Mao Chanmathurith confirmed the arrests but decided to say no more, even refusing to name the casino. The National Military Police spokesperson also passed on giving much commentary, offering only that prosecutors were “on the case.”

Read more: CamboJA News

Photo by v2osk on Unsplash

An Eviction Notice That Wasn't

A forged immigration document, complete with lifted signatures from GDI Director-General Som Sopheak and Interior Ministry Secretary of State Sar Sokha, tore through African social media last week claiming Ghanaians, Kenyans and others had until May 31 to leave or suffer two years in prison and an $8,000 fine. Several major African outlets ran it straight. Cambodia's Interior Ministry said the note was fabricated (Ghana's FM Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa confirmed the same). Even though the document was fiction, the immigration waivers referenced in the fake notice are real instruments, used on workers with expired visas who had fled or been freed from scam compounds and needed time to arrange passage home. Ghana's High Commission in Malaysia, which handles Cambodia affairs, evacuated 85 Ghanaians between March and May, and 76 more are waiting on the next flight out.

Read more: Phnom Penh Post (forged signatures), Cambodianess (19,000 expulsions), The Whistler (ministry), Modern Ghana, TVC News (76 pending evacuation)

Master 25's Ponzi Trail Leads to the Ministries

Leng Channa and two sidekicks have confessed to getting between $93 million and $98 million from a figure known only as "Master 25." They used the money to buy land and pay interest to earlier investors in what the Anti-Corruption Unit says was a Ponzi. About 5,000 victims were taken in by Brilliant City, whose CEO and two deputy CEOs were arrested in Siem Reap in March 2024 on charges of aggravated fraud and money laundering. The ACU has since begun investigations into Sean Borat, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, and Sar Thavy, Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of National Defense. The PM has assigned Ky Tech, head of the government’s legal team, to look after victims' interests.

Bank Crisis or Challenge?

Cambodia's banking sector sanctioned and placed multiple financial institutions into liquidation over the past year. That’s the sort of news that often gets buried in otherwise reassuring press releases, but it’s not a good look. Total banking assets are $101.8 billion, the result of roughly 400 percent growth over the past decade, and the National Bank of Cambodia's prudential ratios still look fine on paper. The non-performing loan ratio is 3.7 percent, which should be manageable, even though that’s a historical high for Cambodia. The bank closures are doing reputational damage to be sure, the question is if this is "crisis or challenge?"

Read more: Khmer Times (NPL historical highs), Kiripost (3.7% NPL rate)

The Golden Emblem Opens Doors, Wallets

Susumu Tai, 73, Cambodia's honorary consul in Sendai, raked in more than 2 billion yen ($12.5M) from more than 20 Japanese companies for sham investment consulting, then returned most of it as kickbacks while skimming 10-20 percent as his “commission.” The Sendai Regional Taxation Bureau has charged him roughly 260 million yen in back taxes and penalties on some 370 million yen in unreported income; the companies that paid him face a dues of another 700 million yen or so. Tai's pitch was gentlemanly, and his business card carried the golden national emblem of Cambodia, and clients' confidence was fortified in January 2024 when Hun Manet appointed him a special adviser to the prime minister. When tax authorities came calling, Tai claimed diplomatic immunity, a privilege Japan (not unusually) does not extend to honorary consuls.

PTT's Cambodia Pumps Run Dry

PTT's OR unit has watched its Cambodian petrol station network shrivel from 200 to 91 since border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia began, and says that sales are off 50 or 60% from what they were a year ago. Forty or fifty of those lost stations didn't close so much as defect, switching to rival (non-Thai, natch) brands. Café Amazon locations saw a more modest reduction, from 150 outlets to 136. CFO Wilaiwan Kanjanakanti's silver lining is that the Cambodia apparently only accounts for 2-3% of the firm’s net profit.

Tuk-Tuks 1, EVs 0

Cambodia's transport ministry suspended WowNow's electric taxi fleet on Wednesday after tuk-tuk drivers complained the EV service had cut their daily earnings from $25 to $10. Left unmentioned in the ministry’s announcement was WowNow's previous tie-ups with Prince Bank and Prince Supermarket, both companies which were sanctioned by the US over alleged links to online scams, money laundering, and human trafficking under the Prince Group crackdown. WowNow itself hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, and Prince Group continues to deny the allegations. Dozens of suspended EV drivers petitioned the labor ministry the same day, and were asked to "remain silent" while negotiations are ongoing.

Read more: CamboJA News

That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back- hit reply and tell us what you think.

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